Awkward Celebration and Dishonesty Of Call Me By Your NameIn the 1990s a group of us drove into New York to see the movie, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It was exciting because for most of us that’s the first time we actually saw a movie with gay content in a real live movie theater…where you could buy popcorn and be just like everyone else in the straight world going to see a movie about straight people. We had to wait years for that experience to happen again with Brokeback Mountain. With a few exceptions, there hasn’t been much since then.

With that said, I recently had a discussion with someone about the movie Call Me By Your Name and it was interesting because they didn’t seem to see anything wrong with a barely legal 17 year old boy having a sexual relationship with an older man. So I did some basic searches and I came across a few pieces that other people wrote that explain how I feel whenever I see someone praising Call Me By Your Name as a love story for gay people. I’d rather just link now to someone else’s opinion at this point.

Here’s one:

I am not certain how some journalists can label Call Me By Your Name a tender love story. The novel and now film portray an older man consummating a relationship with a teenage boy. While Elio’s father may “approve” of his son’s relationship with Oliver this story is just that, a fictitious work that attempts to capture how people with same-sex attraction experience love, intimacy and human touch. Such fictitious ruminations do not represent the real world experiences of many LGBT youth.

“Call Me by Your Name,” the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a deftly directed, beautifully photographed, wonderfully acted master class in sexual predation and abuse.

The lush, dream-like movie chronicles a summer romance between 17-year-old Elio and his father’s hunky 24-year-old graduate assistant, Oliver. Although many reviewers touch on the problematic “age gap” between them, for the most part, they minimize those concerns and lavish praise on the movie. (“An erotic triumph,” says one; “a romantic marvel,” says another.)

The problem isn’t with the movie itself, or the story. The problem is the way the movie is being marketed and promoted…and even described. There’s no way anyone’s going to convince me that it’s okay for an older man to have a sexual relationship with a 17 year old boy and call it a normal love story.

What Is Inverse Rape?

I’ve been posting about how some people are getting tired of seeing racist remarks on hook up apps like Grindr. It’s created a hot discussion lately on more than a few web sites.

This is from Urban Dictionary, verbatim:

Refusing to date someone you’re not attracted to. Doing so is seen by some as bigotry and promoting discriminatory abuse, that forcing people to date outside their personal preferences is the only way for society to progress.

Author of over 100 published LGBT romance novels and stories, including AN OFFICER AND HIS GENTLEMAN and best selling VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE SERIES. Hates beets.
New Hope, PA Palm Springs, CA
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